Friday, April 08, 2016

Buhari govt to save 20% from travels

The All Progressive Congress (APC) Federal Government led by
President Muhammadu Buhari has concluded plans to save some 20 per cent from
travel expenditures by limiting Business Class travel to Ministers, Permanent
Secretaries, Chairmen of Federal Government Committees, as well as Chairmen and
Chief Executives of Parastatals and Agencies, reports ITRealms.

Disclosing this, the office of Efficiency Unit of the
Federal Ministry of Finance said they are collaborating very closely with the
Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) and the
Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), to review
the provisions of some extant government Circulars on Overhead Expenses one of
which is on Travels.

Special Assistant on Media to Honourable Minister of
Finance, Festus Akanbi confirmed this to ITRealms, saying that the Efficiency
Unit, an initiative of the current Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun was
set up to engender transparency and reduce government’s large expenditure
through procurement in the various ministries, departments and agencies of the
Federal Government.

He also said that the unit, in its negotiation for discounts
with local and international airlines also recommended other measures for
reducing the government’s large expenditure on travels to the OSGF.

This, he said, includes the need to restrict Business Class
travel to Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Chairmen of Federal Government
Committees, as well as Chairmen and Chief Executives of Parastatals and
Agencies.

He noted that previously, some government officials who
should have been on Business Class usually traveled First Class, while many
others travelled Business Class instead of Economy.

The second recommendation, ITRealms reports, bordered on the
need to reduce the frequency of travels by ensuring that Board and Committee
events such as meetings, workshops and conferences in Nigeria are held in
locations where the institutions or persons participating in the event are
domiciled.

Furthermore, such events should for the most part be held in
Nigeria but where this is not possible, the prior approval of the Secretary to
the Federal Government should be secured.

This, he further said, aligns with the present
administration’s commitment to reform public expenditure, hence, the OSGF
accepted the recommendations in full and has accordingly issued a Circular
recently to effect the changes.

“The buy-in and prompt reaction of the OSGF is an
attestation of the common resolve by government to its change mantra and the
spirit of collaboration among government institutions and officials,” Akanbi
said.

ITRealms recalls that Travel Expenditure is estimated to
drop by about 20 per cent if the provisions of the new Circular issued by the
OSGF are fully implemented.

Akanbi went on to explain that a 20 per cent reduction in
Air Travel Expenditure, using the figure of N69.417 billion incurred on Travels
in 2014 will result in a cost-cutting of N13.88 billion, stressing that such
large savings from Travel, should ordinarily not be a major expense item for
the government, but become available for investment in capital projects such as
roads, power, railways and public health facilities.

“The savings are expected to be even larger when discounts
secured from Airlines are added. Already, 11 Airlines have offered discounts on
local and international routes for travel by MDAs while negotiations are
on-going with others. The discounts
received so far vary across routes and airlines and range from 7 per cent to 50
per cent. The Efficiency Unit expects the implementation of the price discounts
secured from Airlines to start in May 2016 when the Agreements would have been
signed with the Airlines and MDA staff would have been trained and equipped for
effective administration of the new process,” he explained.

Other overhead expenditure items, he said being reviewed by
the Efficiency Unit are those relating to refreshments and meals, honorarium
and sitting allowance as well as advertising and publicity.

Measures, Akanbi said that will standardise spending on
these items, cut costs and promote transparency on these items have been recommended
to the OSGF and the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation,
from which further cost-cutting on Overhead Expenditure is to be achieved.